Comfort for a God
by SherlockDW2013
Summary: Loki has another nightmare and he goes to the only person he trusts the most for comfort. Hints of FrostIron at the end if you squint. Possible sequel planned.


**A/N: First time I have really wrote something with Loki and someone from the Avengers before, so forgive me if I make some mistakes. :)**_  
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* * *

_Loki was surrounded by darkness. He was panicking as the familiar voice he had thought he would never hear echoed on his ears.  
'If you fail, if the Tesseract is kept from us, there will be no realm, no barren moon, no crevasse where I can't find you. You think you know pain? He will make you long for that so sweet as pain.' A laugh accompanied the familiar speech.  
The laugh made Loki's stomach churn and blood curdle and the next thing he knew, the Other was standing before him. His leering face grinning like a madman as he reached out to grab the god_

**"Found you." **

A scream ripped itself from Loki's throat as his eyes snapped open and he shot up into a sitting position, nearly falling off the bed in the process. His pale skin had a layer of sweat, his cheeks were stained with tears and his hair was plastered to his scalp. While the sheets below him were drenched in sweat.

He clutched the sheets uselessly with his hands and his breathing came in rasps that scraped his throat. Loki stayed like that for a few moments before shouting on the top of his voice

"JARVIS!"

"Sir? You seem highly distressed and your heartbeat has accelerated to an alarming rate. Do you wish me to awaken and alert Doctor Banner?"

"NO!" Loki's eyes widened at the thought of the scientists counterpart bursting into the room and finishing off what he did during the Battle for New York. He shook the thought from his mind

"I mean - No, thank you..."

"Very well, Sir. Do you require anything?"

"Where is Stark?" He wondered aloud cursing momentarily for showing such weakness.  
He and the Man of Iron had gotten a little close after Thor had dragged him down to Midgard for punishment for his crimes, forcing Stark to agree for his baby brother to stay and be treated with the utmost respect.

The play boy had swallowed his pride and agreed, well, who wouldn't when you have the God of Thunder pointing Mjönir directly at your face. At first, everyone just ignored him completely, merely busying themselves with trivial tasks just to avoid the trickster completely.

* * *

After around a week, the nightmares started and Loki had spent countless nights awake and nearly scared to death. After a couple of days of night terrors, Loki finally decided to explore the tower while others slept on their floors. He had spent half an hour wandering aimlessly down the corridors until he had come across a staircase which was bathed in light from a room downstairs that had been left unexplored and hidden from Loki's investigations.

Slowly and quietly, he had gone down the stairs and came across a door which sounds could be heard from the other side. After asking JARVIS politely to open it for around five minutes, the Al finally gave in and the door had swung open gently.  
Loki strolled in and immediately the sound of drilling and many other nooses joined filled his ears, making him wince as the sound clawed at his sensitive hearing. He noticed that at the furthest wall to where he was standing had glass cases which harboured a small collection of Iron Man suits. Different colours and seemingly different abilities. While in front of the suits, Tony Stark sat, with a mask over his face as he used a blowtorch to weld two slabs of metal together.

Loki gazed at him for a few moments until the blowtorch shut off and the mask was pulled off revealing a tired looking Stark. The billionaire gazed at him, surprised at Loki's bedraggled appearance. He frowned and lowered everything he held onto the table.  
"Trouble sleeping?" he asked calmly

"What is it to you, _mortal_?" Loki sneered and Tony held up his hands in surrender

"Hey I was just asking, Reindeer Games. The tear stains on your cheeks bags under your eyes were a big giveaway." Loki looked away

"There's no need to be ashamed, Loki. We all have nightmares now and then."

"But I am a God! We do not have nightmares, we do not fear anything!" Loki growled and turned back to Tony who tilted his head in confusion

"Everyone has their own fears. Gods are no exception. Heck, even I do. Why do you think I'm down here so late at night?" Loki frowned

"You have nightmares?" he asked, an eyebrow raised.

"'Course I do." Tony shrugged

"Does anyone know?"

"To be perfectly honest, I've never talked to anyone about it before."

"Nobody?"

"Nope. Never really wanted to. Just brought to many memories that I want buried, back. Pepper recommended I go see a therapist about them."

"Who is Pepper?" Loki cocked his head and Tony winced and rubbed the back of his neck

"We used to date. She broke up with me a while back because she said she couldn't handle the pressure of dating a celebrity. So just after she left, the nightmares started all over again. Haven't really wanted to go back to her about that. She seeing someone else and I thought it would be best to just leave her be, you know?." Loki nodded slowly. Was that a hint of sympathy in his eyes?

"So what are your nightmares about?" he asked after a few moments of silence. Not including the whirring of dummy a few feet away. He saw a slight hesitation in the other mans eyes before it disappeared. Tony gestured to a chair opposite him and Loki hesitantly sat on it. He really wasn't used to being so close to someone. Tony didn't notice his discomfort, instead he leaned back and placed his hands behind his head, a small sigh escaping his lips.

"Maybe it would be nice to share it with someone." Tony had then concluded after a minute or two. "I dream about what happened a long time ago... It was when I was kidnapped in Afghanistan and tortured." Tony tapped the Arc Reactor through his shirt. "Where I got this baby. Funny though, it was thanks to my own invention." Loki gazed at the light at Tony's chest.

"What does that do?" he asked, curiosity getting the best of him

"It keeps me alive." Tony said calmly and Loki frowned

"A device such as this is much more advanced than normal technology on the rest of Midgard."

"It is." Loki wanted to ask to see it bit suppressed the urge.

"Apologies for the interruption. You may continue with your story."

"Ta. Well, yeah, like I said, this kept me alive while I was held captive. I was forced to build weapons of mass destruction. But it isn't that I'm haunted about. It was the torture. They never ending suffering and pain."  
Loki let out a involuntary and inaudible whimper as he remembered his time with the Chitauri.

"I would have rather be dead to be honest. What happened I here you cry? I escaped. But it was at the greatest cost." The last part was whispered and Tony looked away. "I lost the man who saved my life and motivated me to go on. To stay alive and never give up and never give in." Tony trailed off and silence filled the room once more. Finally, the inventor turned to face the God.

"So, what plagues you at night?" Loki made eye contact with Tony for a few moments before looking away "That bad, huh?" the trickster clenched his jaw "You don't have to tell me."

"No, I should." Loki waved a hand, not making any eye contact "You have shared your darkest, deepest fear and secret. It is only fair I do the same." Tony blinked

"Really? I mean, no offence to you, but I would have expected you to not really say anything."

"I am a fair person when it comes to some situations, Stark." Loki snapped before sighing and rubbing his eyes "You have just not been well acquainted with me."

"Yet" Tony nodded and Loki raised a disbelieving eyebrow "Sorry, you can tell your tale."  
"Thank You." Loki turned back and faced the other man but still did not raise his head enough to make eye contact. "Where shall I begin...?"

For the rest of the night, Loki had explained into perfect detail about his nightmares. About the Other, the Chitauri, the torture, everything. And for that whole time Tony did not do anything other than listen to the story with interest. Not looking away for a single moment, not fiddling with his surroundings or showing any signs of discomfort. He just listened.

From that night on, both men had newfound respect -in a way- for each other. Every night, Loki would have a nightmare and he would travel down to Tony's lab. They would both talk. Just talk, nothing else. Their conversations would always start on what their nightmares were about. But after that, slowly the conversation would drift and they would talk about something different until the early morning where both would head back to their rooms and exchange a small goodbye. Until the night.

* * *

"He is currently on his floor, resting in his room." That was definitely a first, Tony would tend to be downstairs in his lab by now tinkering with whatever was in it.

"Where is his bedroom?" Loki asked before he could stop himself.

"Where it has always been, Sir, two floors up, right from the elevator and sixth door on the left of the corridor." the Al has stated a-matter-of-factly.

"Thank you."

"Anytime, Sir." Loki got up from the bed, his limbs making their protests; pushing the thick duvet off of his body and sliding off of the bed and standing on shaky legs.  
He was thankful at this time that the Man if Iron had the decency to give him his very own floor, with the exception of a spare room for Thor to stay whenever he wanted despite the fact he had his own floor, but he was with Jane for the weekend, nobody had heard his scream.

Loki stumbled like a drunk down the corridor and staggered into the already waiting, courtesy of JARVIS, lift. The doors closed behind him. Loki sagged against the cool walls of the elevator and he shut his eyes for a few moments, savouring the quiet hum that it provided.

JARVIS must have sensed his uneasiness because the lift went a little faster than usual. The elevator came to a soft stop and the doors opened with a gentle 'ding'.  
The corridors were dark and Loki could barely see where he was going. He turned right and then veered to the left of the corridor feeling his way for each door.

_One._

_Two._

_Thee._

_Four._

_Five._

_Six._

Loki grasped the handle of the sixth door before turning the handle and opening it with great care. He winces once the hinges squeaked and he saw the lump in the bed shift a little before stilling. He walked into the room and closed the door behind him, his eyes adjusted and he finally saw Stark sleeping in the bed and only his head poking out of the covers. He took a hesitant step towards the bed and grimaced as the floor gave a loud squeak. He looked up as he saw Tony sitting up in the bed, rubbing the sleep from his eyes.

"Mn... Loki? What are you doing here?" The Trickster bit his lip and without another word,p sprinted onto the bed, his bare feet heard thumping on the ground. Loki dived under the covers and he crawled closer to Tony. He didn't leave the safety of the blanket but merely stayed under it so that pretty much only his emerald eyes were visible to the inventor beside him.

"Whoa, hey there Rudolph, what's gotten into you? Why are you in my bed?" Tony's eyes widened at the dark haired god curled under the duvet. They had never really been this close before. Occasionally, when Loki would visit the lab, he would have had tears stained in his cheeks and Tony would know that the nightmare had been worse than normal. So he tended to do the best he could for the God. He would listen to the dream, talk to him, get him something to eat or drink and sometimes he would be there to hold his hand and mutter sweet nothings in the Gods presence. But never had Loki done _this_.

"Did you have another nightmare?"

The nightmares from before came back flooding like never ending waves. Tears began to sting his eyes and through the dark, Tony noticed them glisten through the darkness of the room.

"Wait, Loki, are you _crying_?" That was new, yeah Loki cried, but never in front of somebody. Loki clenched a fist and he threw the covers from off of his body before hurling himself into Stark's arms, grabbing fistful's of his shirt and gripping onto them like his life depended on it.

"L-Lokes?!" Tony exclaimed, shocked, this was definitely different, but he took no action to pry nor remove the trickster from his favourite night-shirt.

"Just shut up and hold me, mortal." the god tried to growl but his voice came out as more of a sob riddled with sadness and hurt. He gripped the shirt tighter, his already pale knuckles growing whiter. Tony's eyes softened as he knew how the other felt; he wrapped a protective arm around Loki's back and placed a gentle hand at the back of the gods head, softly stroking the raven black hair while rubbing his back.

"Hey, hey, it's OK. You're safe, Loki." Loki whimpered and he buried his head into Tony's chest, a few inches from the Arc Reactor

_'If you fail, if the Tesseract is kept from us, there will be no realm, no barren moon, no crevasse where I can't find you. You think you know pain? He will make you long for that so sweet as pain.'_

"You don't need to be scared"

"Y-you weren't in your lab a-and..."

"Shh... It's OK Loki, you did the right thing. You needed comfort and you went to the person you trusted the most. That's OK." Both men sat in silence and all that could be heard were the muffle and sharp intakes of breaths coming from the God.  
"I'm here, you know, if you want to talk about it. Like we always do." Tony said, still rubbing Loki's back in an attempt of comfort. Loki buried his face deeper into Tony's shirt. "You don't have to suffer or take this alone. We can go through this together." Tony continued, ignoring how wet the front of his shirt was getting.

"Why do you care?" Loki sniffed as he pulled away, seemingly disgraced for showing such vulnerability to a mortal.

"Well you've been going through this nightmare faze for the past month. I've been through this sort of situation before, trust me, it isn't nice to go through it alone."

"What are you suggesting?" Loki wiped his nose with his sleeve

"I'm not suggesting anything. All im saying is that your suffering because of these nightmares and I'm willing to help you get through it." Loki felt touched and he yawned

"You are?" he said drowsily, the warmth of the man next to him making him sleepy

"As long as you don't throw me out of a window again, sure." Tony joked and Loki laughed. It wasn't evil and sadistic, but genuine and warm. The Man if Iron was certainly growing on him. Tony chuckled

"That is probably the first time I've hear you laugh, better yet smile. You should do that more often." Tony looked down to the God before realizing he had fallen asleep, snuggled up to the inventors side.

"Wow." Tony blushed before debating whether or not he should stay or go sleep on the couch. He chose the first option. It was his bed anyway. He lay back down into the bed and paused once the sleeping god shimmied over by him and snuggled into his chest. Tony thought about it before wrapping his arms around Loki and kissing his forehead gently, the trickster smiled in his sleep.

"Goodnight Loki." Tony whispered and closed his eyes.

This would be a pain in the ass to explain in the morning.

**So, thoughts? Reviews welcome :)**


End file.
